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344
VEDÂNTA-SUTRAS.
is the superimposition of a higher contemplation on something lower, we should incur loss by superimposing a lower contemplation upon something higher.-As moreover in the passages under discussion the words ' Aditya' and so on stand first, they must, this being not contradictory, be taken in their primary sense. But, as our thought is thus defined by these words taken in their true literal sense, the word 'Brahman,' which supervenes later on, cannot be co-ordinated with them if it also be taken in its true literal sense, and from this it follows that the purport of the passages can only be to enjoin contemplations on Brahman (superinduced on Aditya and so on).—The same sense follows from the circumstance that the word 'Brahman' is, in all the passages under discussion, followed by the word 'iti,' 'thus??' He is to meditate (on Aditya, &c.) as Brahman.' The words 'Aditya' and so on, on the other hand, the text exhibits without any such addition. The passages therefore are clearly analogous to such sentences as 'He views the mother o pearl as silver, in which the word 'mother o' pearl' denotes mother o' pearl pure and simple, while the word 'silver' denotes, by implication, the idea of silver ; for the person in question merely thinks 'this is silver' while there is no real silver. Thus our passages also mean, 'He is to view Aditya and so on as Brahman.'— The complementary clauses, moreover, which belong to the passages under discussion ("He who knowing this meditates (upon) Aditya as Brahman;'Who meditates (on) speech as Brahman;'Who meditates (on) will as Brahman'), exhibit the words 'Aditya' and so on in the accusative case, and thereby show them to be the direct objects of the action of meditation --Against the remark that in all the mentioned cases Brahman only has to be meditated upon in order that a fruit may result from the meditation, we point out that from the mode of proof used
1 Which in the translations given above of the texts under discussion is mostly rendered by 'as' before the words concerned.
2 While the word Brahman' does not stand in the accusative case.
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